On a late-night red-eye flight, Joseph Martella had a vision. He imagined a sexy line of T’s for women, labeled Tee-Flirt! When he arrived home, he immediately went to his computer to work on an initial logo.
While creating the Tee-Flirt logo, he had another revelation – Mini-Flirt! His goal was to market his clothing brands to women everywhere, but needed someone to make the vision a reality.
One magical meeting later… he met New Zealander, Gabrielle Lyster, at a weekly magicians gathering. Gabrielle is costume designer for the Lance Burton Magic Show here, in Las Vegas.
On a hand-shake agreement, they both went to work on their company, Tee-Flirt. Joe focused on marketing while Gabrielle “sewed like the wind” in her home-based Tee-Flirt factory.
For 5 months they worked long hours to produce an initial line of 16 Tee-Flirt and 5 Mini-Flirt styles. Along the way they added DownUndees, featuring boxers and showgirl G-strings Gabrielle has sold to dancers in Las Vegas for years, the Be BAD brand and their newest line - Tee-Flirt golf apparel for women.
On February 23rd 2004 they launched Tee-Flirt, LLC. at the international WWD MAGIC apparel trade show in Las Vegas. Feb. 24th they received their first confirmed wholesale order and on Feb. 25th, teeflirt.com opened for business.
